Independently Strong

When we meditate, we’re working on the potentials we have within the mind and in the body, to make them strong. We live in a very undependable world. There are people who, at least in the past, liked to celebrate the interconnectedness of all things. It all seemed to be wonderful to be dependent on one another. But now we see what it’s like, the ugly side. So it’s time to look for our independent goodness inside, independent potentials inside, and see if we can develop them.

It starts with the strength of conviction that what you do is important. It’s the main factor shaping your life. So instead of worrying about what other people are doing, worry about what you’re doing. Make sure that you’re doing things that are skillful, that are not overcome by greed, aversion, or delusion. In other words, you have to train the mind.

Based on that, you develop the strength of persistence—that you really stick with it.

Anything that’s unskillful in the mind, whether you’re sitting here meditating or not meditating, as soon as you detect it, you let it go. If it doesn’t go away immediately, watch it for a while. Try to understand it. Why is it not going?

When you’ve learned good lessons on how to deal with these unskillful factors in your mind, then you keep them in mind. That’s when you develop the strength of mindfulness so that the lessons you learn you can keep applying again, and again, and again.

When your mindfulness gets strong, then it’s a good basis for concentration. When your concentration gets strong, you can see things in the mind you didn’t see before, subtle things, things that can either be really good or really bad. And you learn how to recognize them for what they are before they get really big. This way you get more and more control over your mind. It’s when you have control over the mind that you can really be independent.

So you want to work on your independent strengths. Because what else do you have to depend on? As the Buddha said, “The self is its own mainstay. Who else could be your mainstay?” And if you can’t depend on yourself, who are you going to depend on? So you’ve got to develop strengths inside. That’s a matter of training, not just a matter of listening to the talks and agreeing or not agreeing. It’s a matter of training your mind again and again and again.

That’s how you become independent in this world. Your goodness becomes independent of the goodness of others—and that’s when it becomes safe.If you’re good only when other people are good, then what happens when they change? You go up and down with their ups and downs. But if you have a good solid source of strength inside, then the world can go up, the world can go down, but you don’t go up and down with it. That’s when you can begin to rely on yourself. That’s where true safety lies.